Hu Rocks & Skitz New Socks

Tyler Danish

Chi-Wei Hu

The Taichung Tiger took care of business in Wednesdays series opener, rocking along with eight strikeouts, facing off in a fierce pitchers duel with Barons prospect Tyler Danish.

Chi-Wei Hu's streak of consecutive innings without an earned run came to an end when the bullpen let a 7th inning runner score to tie the game and Hu was left with a no-decision. He deserved better, in all he went 30+ innings this year before allowing his first earned run! 

 Montgomery claimed the W with Casey Gillaspie's two RBI night, which was all of the Skitz offense. The BigCaseDawg was a triple shy of the cycle and his three hits push his season average to .312.

Reliever Brad Schrieber pitched the ninth, two hits and two strikeouts, for his fifth save.

BISCUITS SOCK IT TO EM!

Almost a bigger story than the great pitching duel was the debut of the new uniform piece, stirrup socks in team colors.

Parker Markel got the Win in the Biscuits new hoisery

The Biscuits haven't made a bigger change in their daily uniform appearance since the uni debuted in 2004. The new hose are worn over white sanitary socks, look to be a five-to-seven inch rise in dark blue with three bright yellow stripes across the calf.

Dan Dement was first to hit the field in 'rups

 "Pretty cool, right? Old school style, I love em!" was Dan Dement's first comment on the Biscuits new hoisery.

 Not every player wore the new gear, but all players with tall socks were in stirrups. Some players still preferred to wear their pants long, as the Rays now allow their minor league guys a choice.

Several of the players I talked who were in long pants still planned on wearing them, a couple who did wear them threatened never to wear em again the team lost or he didn't get hits in the new stirrups.

Pitcher Jacob Faria was among those who weren't wearing the new socks, "Saving them for when I pitch" he said.

"They were on the stools for us when we came in today" pitcher Jacob Faria told me when I asked about the new gear. He mentioned he was already surprised in spring training when the team told the players that they could wear their pants long. "The pants and shaving thing was decided by an organization vote, when they announced the decision there was a huge cheer among the minor league guys" Jacob said.

Schrieber earns the save in his extra tall sox

They are similar to the 1969 Seattle Pilots stirrups, though Biscuit 'rups only have three stripes where the Seattle team had four. Also the blue is maybe a little darker for Montgomery's hose, where the Pilots used a brighter tone.

Ichiro in '69 Pilots throwback uni

Even Manager Brady Williams was happy to wear the socks that complete the new look, having converted the Biscuits from clean cut kids in short pants to scruffy old-school ballplayers.

Mgr. Brady Williams wows the Barons with good sock game

BISCUITS SAY NO TO BEER APP
In a bummer of an item, the team tells me they may be listed but are not a partner with MiLB's "In the Park" app. That means no beer brought to my seat.

If the fans request it often enough, the team would probably have to consider it. Its something they have considered in the past but aren't into building a staff to run a service that may or may not get used.

At least not right now. There were a lot of other factors involved in the reason we don't get to use the app, but at the root of the conversation was the In-Seat service.

So my advice is, every time you have to wait too long at the concession stand - make sure to mention the In-Seat Service to a staffer as an option. Let them know its a service we would use often enough to make it effective.


POLISH RETURNS
On the good side, the Sausage Shack will go back to serving up tasty Polish sausage.

Apparently it was just an oversight that they didn't have it, and will be cooking up one of my faves again very soon.